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General Fitness & HealthDiscuss general fitness. conditioning and health topics.

Not sure if I'm putting this in the right spot but here goes it anyway.

I joined Army ROTC at my university. I'm really psyched about it and have a whole summer to get ready for the 5:30 A.M. wake up calls for PT. But here is my problem, in order to pass the PFT, you have to run 2 miles in under 16 minutes. I can't run distance to save my life.

I need help in figuring out a way to incorporate distance running in to my training schedule. Also if anyone has suggestions on ways to improve endurance/stamina, that would be appreciated.

Currently, I lift Monday-Thursday in the afternoons if that helps.

Thanks in advance for the help.

__________________

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. - Vince Lombardi

I have been a runner and a lifter, and also have been in the service. It won't take you long to get to a decent mile time, but it will take a few weeks of consistency.

This is how the approach I have used for getting back into running, most recently in 2007.

I would run 3 times during your first week, every other day and take two days off to rest. Day one try for 5 minutes without stopping. After that try adding at least one-two extra minutes per run until you hit 20 minutes.

After that run every other day. Run after lifting on lifting days.

Don't be concerned about pace. Speed will come as you put in your time. If after 2 weeks you feel like you need a bit more, run 4x a week.

A Summer is a long time and you will improve dramatically if you stick with it.

Select a pace on a treadmill or road or anything, pace isnt important at the moment. This is the starting point, like lifting has sets and reps, so does this method of running overload. In this case you will do sets of running for 5 minutes, followed by a 5 minute rest. Then run again running for 5 minutes, followed by a 5 minute rest. If you cant do 5 minutes of running, try 2, or 3 or whichever, as long a your consistent across your sets, but keep 5 minutes rest.

So you will be running, then resting, running then resting. Ideally you want to hit be doing this for anywhere between 20-45 minutes, 35 minutes is always good (assuming 5 minutes rest and 5 minutes running), that will entail 4 sets of running intervals. Eventually this will end up in 20 minutes of running at that pace without stopping.

This is hows its run: -

If you cant do 5 minute running sets
- Pick a time, say 2 minutes of running (as long as you can be consistent across all sets and not be too destroyed, think of of this as the starting weight of a new weights routine). Perform 2 minutes of running, followed by 5 minutes rest, do this for 4 intervals of 2 minutes.
- Here is how progression works. You simply add 1 minute or even 30 seconds to your running time. 1 Minute would be faster, but it depends how quickly you adapt. But again keep the 5 minutes rest
- Do this until you reach 5 minutes running and 5 minutes resting.
- Keep the pace the same

If you can do 5 minutes running sets
- Perform the 5 minutes running and 5 minutes rest, again the 4 running intervals. This is the only time it will add to 35 minutes.
- Here is the progression for this one. You take away rest time, but keep the 5 minutes running, you decrease the rest time by 1 minute or 30 seconds, again depending on how you feel.
- When you finish this section you will be running for 20 minutes at this pace.

Note
Resting - This can be walking at whichever pace you want, ideally something slow.
Whats next - After you can run continually for 20 minutes, we can then start working on pace. We can use heartrate is a way to measure and drive progression.

P.S. Let me know if I made a mistake with math or anything like that.

__________________
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

"When in doubt, just get really, really strong. It tends to cure most problems in training – and life." - Wendler

yea i would..especially if your body isn't used to all the running..going for long slow distance run will take a toll on your body since its not used to it...I was start the week with speed work, then the following day can be your distance work which can also be as a recovery, take a full day off from running, then go again. people who want to get their endurance up start off running miles and miles right off the back, which i dont think is a smart move.

1.1 miles in 10 minutes and 20 seconds. Very slow pace just wanted to keep running at a consistent pace for 10 minutes and the distance happened to be a mile. My goal by the end of the summer is 2 miles in under 16 minutes. From here, should I worry about increasing distance for the mile first? Or worry about increasing distance until I can run the 2 miles?

__________________

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. - Vince Lombardi